NYT Columnist David Brooks warns of “rise of Ted Cruz-ism’

New York Times Columnist David Brooks, a liberal Republican, has criticized the direction in which the GOP is moving. (Getty)

New York Times Columnist David Brooks slammed the Republican Party this weekend for being the party of obstructionism, specifically singling out Ted Cruz for going to Congress to make a statement rather than legislate.

Brooks, a liberal Republican political commentator who has criticized the GOP in the past, said on PBS’s NewsHour Friday night that Cruz is taking over the Republican Party by means of fighting the Democratic agenda and “running against the Republican establishment.”

Cruz, the junior Republican Senator from Texas, has been making news lately for his outspoken stance against the Affordable Care Act and for decrying President Barack Obama’s approach to intervention in Syria. Forty-one years old and a dual citizen of Canada, Cruz has been widely seen as a likely GOP candidate for president in 2016, and he has pledged to renounce his Canadian citizenship if he decides to run.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is leading the GOP in a new direction. (AP)

Calling Cruz a “media-protest person,” Brooks said Cruz is going against the flow of his own Republican Party by speaking out against typical Republican decisions, including party leadership in the House and Senate. According to The Washington Post, “deep divisions within Republican ranks” during the budget debate are making Republican leaders quickly search for a new approach as the Oct. 1 deadline looms.

“A lot of the House Republicans are in the same mode (as Cruz),” Brooks said. “They’re not normal members of Congress. They’re not legislators. They want to stop things. And so they’re just being — they just want to obstruct.”

A recent report by The Polling Company shows that Cruz’s brand of conservatism is picking up among GOP voters, as more Republicans are becoming more socially moderate.